Glass packaging: all the advantages

There are many advantages to glass packaging: the choice of certain materials over others can be effective in promoting sustainable development and greater environmental awareness. And not only that.

But what is meant by the packaging of a product?

In marketing, packaging is the method of wrapping and presenting a product: it is of fundamental importance because it provides precise indications about the type of consumption, its use, and its identification.

In fact, there are 4 main functions of packaging:

-          Product containment

-          Content Preservation

-          Manipulation of goods

-          Product Presentation

As for the choice of materials used, in recent years we have been witnessing a pleasant countertrend: glass is slowly replacing plastic as the most used in product packaging.

The popularity of glass is documented by independent research from InSites, conducted on over 10,000 consumers in 13 European countries, commissioned by Friends of Glass and Feve, the European Federation of Glass Containers, which reveals that people are increasingly purchasing glass: 96% of the Italians surveyed admitted to preferring and consuming more products packaged in glass rather than in other materials (three years ago it was 88%).

Glass packaging: why make this choice?

"A glass container certainly adds more value to the product and indicates information about the company's ethical behavior. Glass is, in fact, a 100% recyclable material, and adopting glass packaging rather than plastic means promoting an ecological lifestyle and being mindful of the major issues of this century."

Furthermore, glass improves the "shelf-life", that is, the preservation duration of a product: it is safe, hygienic, and for this reason capable of instilling confidence in the consumer.

Plastic, on the contrary, remains unchanged for a long time after being thrown away, instead of degrading: they last until 1000 years to biodegrade!

As it degrades, it does not return to a state compatible with the soil. On the contrary, it releases microplastics (microscopic pieces of plastic), which will continue to pollute our planet.

Furthermore, plastic recycling is one of the greater contributions to pollution: there are different types of plastic that cannot be mixed during recycling due to their different properties.

Plastic also loses quality during the recycling phases and many plastics can only be recycled once, making the recycling process very inefficient and problematic.

At this point, it is undoubtedly clear that glass has a significant environmental advantage!

Packs and cosmetics

"Among the sectors that have most benefited from this change is certainly the cosmetic one."

In fact, the greatest criticality to evaluate in cosmetic packaging is the possible release of potentially hazardous substances, by the pack in the product, 'after rather long periods of time or in "stress" environmental conditions (for example, bottles containing sunscreen products that are exposed for several hours to solar radiation.).'

Cosmetics, being in direct contact with the skin, must be chosen with care and attention.: glass packaging protects the product by reducing the risk of contact with polluting elements that would inevitably contaminate its quality.

'Despite the numerous signs of progress, the reality is that today, most companies are still dependent on plastic packaging: it is important to raise public awareness and encourage consumers to purchase glass products rather than plastic or other non-recyclable materials.'

"These materials will pollute our seas, rivers, or other watercourses, or will settle in landfills for a long time, causing not only significant environmental damage but also problems for our health."

"It is important to act now and lean towards a sustainable lifestyle in every sector: the packaging of the future must be completely zero impact."